Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne
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| "Her [[foot]], her small foot, that turns so many heads was shod with a pink [[High-heeled shoe|pump]], so beautifully made and so worthy of enclosing such a beautiful foot that my eyes once fixed on that charming foot could not turn themselves away."--''[[The Foot of Fanchette]]'' (1769) by Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, translation from ''[[Marquis de Sade: His Life and Works]]'' | "Her [[foot]], her small foot, that turns so many heads was shod with a pink [[High-heeled shoe|pump]], so beautifully made and so worthy of enclosing such a beautiful foot that my eyes once fixed on that charming foot could not turn themselves away."--''[[The Foot of Fanchette]]'' (1769) by Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, translation from ''[[Marquis de Sade: His Life and Works]]'' | ||
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| + | "I was much surprised when I received last year a catalogue of books, in which I found [[Bibliographie et Iconographie de tous les ouvrages de Restif de la Bretonne |a long article by M. Paul | ||
| + | Lacroix]] (known under the name of " [[bibliophile Jacob]] " ) of the on the works of [[Restif de la Bretonne]]; even more surprised when I saw the high price which was asked for the works of this writer , whom I had been accustomed to regard as beneath notice. These high prices, to be sure, were chiefly to be attributed to the curious and sometimes beautiful illustrations of the works of Restif, and to their rarity ; but still , I could not but wonder that M. Paul Lacroix took so much notice of a writer whose name was once only pronounced with contempt. “ Restif's books," wrote he, " are now very rare : they will become sought after, as they are now sought after by the great amateurs of bibliographical curiosities. | ||
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| + | His first successful work was the "[[Fool of Fanchette]]," in 1769. He had therefore toiled in vain for seven years, obliged to work in the printing office when he did not write. The intrigue of this story is very common, but the pretty , small foot of the young ''merchande'' St. Denis, in its pretty pink shoe, is an agreeable object, and there are original remarks here and there. This maniac - for I really believe Restif was nothing else - professed all his lifetime a sort of devotion to small feet. A whole volume might be extracted from his voluminous writings on this single subject. When he employed the extreme clever Binet to draw the engravings of his books, he constantly tormented him about the size of the heroine's feet; and really, the ladies of Binet's collection, seem to be walking on [[stilts]]." | ||
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| + | --''[[The American Bibliopolis]]'', reprinted from ''[[The Nation]]'' | ||
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"Her foot, her small foot, that turns so many heads was shod with a pink pump, so beautifully made and so worthy of enclosing such a beautiful foot that my eyes once fixed on that charming foot could not turn themselves away."--The Foot of Fanchette (1769) by Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne, translation from Marquis de Sade: His Life and Works "I was much surprised when I received last year a catalogue of books, in which I found a long article by M. Paul Lacroix (known under the name of " bibliophile Jacob " ) of the on the works of Restif de la Bretonne; even more surprised when I saw the high price which was asked for the works of this writer , whom I had been accustomed to regard as beneath notice. These high prices, to be sure, were chiefly to be attributed to the curious and sometimes beautiful illustrations of the works of Restif, and to their rarity ; but still , I could not but wonder that M. Paul Lacroix took so much notice of a writer whose name was once only pronounced with contempt. “ Restif's books," wrote he, " are now very rare : they will become sought after, as they are now sought after by the great amateurs of bibliographical curiosities. [...] His first successful work was the "Fool of Fanchette," in 1769. He had therefore toiled in vain for seven years, obliged to work in the printing office when he did not write. The intrigue of this story is very common, but the pretty , small foot of the young merchande St. Denis, in its pretty pink shoe, is an agreeable object, and there are original remarks here and there. This maniac - for I really believe Restif was nothing else - professed all his lifetime a sort of devotion to small feet. A whole volume might be extracted from his voluminous writings on this single subject. When he employed the extreme clever Binet to draw the engravings of his books, he constantly tormented him about the size of the heroine's feet; and really, the ladies of Binet's collection, seem to be walking on stilts." --The American Bibliopolis, reprinted from The Nation
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Nicolas-Edme Rétif or Nicolas-Edme Restif (October 23, 1734 – February 2, 1806), called Rétif de la Bretonne, was a French novelist, author of erotic fiction works such as The Anti-Justine (1798) and utopist non-fiction Le Pornographe (1769). The term retifisme for shoe fetishism was named after him. His was known by several epithets: Laharpe called him "the Voltaire of the chambermaids" and was also known as "the Rousseau of the gutter." He was portrayed by Jean-Louis Barrault in Ettore Scola's film That Night in Varennes.
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Life
He was the son of a farmer, and was born at Sacy (Yonne). He was educated by the Jansenists at Bicêtre, and on the expulsion of the Jansenists was received by one of his brothers, who was a curé. Owing to a scandal in which he was involved, he was apprenticed to a printer at Auxerre, and, having served his time, went to Paris. Here he worked as a journeyman printer, and in 1760 he married Anne or Agnès Lebègue, a relation of his former master at Auxerre.
It was not until five or six years after his marriage that Rétif appeared as an author, and from that time to his death he produced a bewildering multitude of books, amounting to something like two hundred volumes, many of them printed with his own hand, on almost every conceivable subject. Rétif suffered at one time or another the extremes of poverty and was acquainted with every kind of intrigue. He drew on the episodes of his own life for his books, which, in spite of their faded sentiment, contain truthful pictures of French society on the eve of the Revolution. He has been described as both a social realist and a sexual fantasist in his writings.
The original editions of these, and indeed of all his books, have long been bibliographical curiosities owing to their rarity, the beautiful and curious illustrations which many of them contain, and the quaint typographic system in which most are composed.
The fall of the assignats during the Revolution forced him to make his living by writing, profiting on the new freedom of the press. In 1795 he received a gratuity of 2000 francs from the Thermidor Convention. In spite of his declarations for the new power, his aristocratic acquaintances and his reputation made him fall in disgrace. Just before his death Napoleon gave him a place in the ministry of police, which he did not live to take up.
Rétif de la Bretonne undoubtedly holds a remarkable place in French literature. He was inordinately vain, of extremely relaxed morals, and perhaps not entirely sane. His books were written with haste, and their licence of subject and language renders them "quite unfit for general perusal", according to the Britannica redactors.
He and the Marquis de Sade maintained a mutual hate, while he was appreciated by Benjamin Constant and Friedrich von Schiller and appeared at the table of Alexandre Balthazar Laurent Grimod de La Reynière, whom he met in 1782. Jean François de La Harpe nicknamed him "the Voltaire of the chambermaids". He was rediscovered by the Surrealists.
He is also noted for his advocacy of communism, indeed the term first made its modern appearance (1785) in his book review of Joseph-Alexandre-Victor Hupay de Fuveau who described himself as "communist" with his Project for a Philosophical Community.
The works of Charles Monselet, Rétif de la Bretonne (1853), and P. Lacroix, Bibliographie et iconographie (1875), J. Assezat's selection from the Contemporaines, with excellent introductions (3 vols., 1875), and the valuable reprint of Monsieur Nicolas (14 vols., 1883-1884), are sufficient to form a judgment of him. His life, written by his contemporary Cubières-Palmezeaux, was republished in 1875. See also Eugène Dühren, Rétif de la Bretonne, der Mensch, der Schriftsteller, der Reformator (Berlin, 1906), and a bibliography, Rétif-Bibliothek (Berlin, 1906), by the same author.
Work
The most noteworthy of his works are:
- Le Pied de Fanchette, a novel (1769)
- Le Pornographe (1769), a plan for regulating prostitution which is said to have been actually carried out by the Emperor Joseph II, while not a few detached hints have been adopted by continental nations
- Le Paysan perverti (1775), a novel with a moral purpose, though sufficiently horrible in detail
- La Vie de mon père (1779)
- La Découverte Australe par un Homme Volant (1781), a piece of proto-science-fiction notorious for his prophetic inventions.
- Les Contemporaines (42 vols., 1780-1785), a vast collection of short stories
- Ingenue Saxancour, also a novel (1785)
- Les Nuits de Paris (beginning 1786: reportage including the September Massacres of 1792 )
- Anti Justine (1793), an answer to the earlier editions of de Sade's Justine.
- The extraordinary autobiography of Monsieur Nicolas (16 vols., 1794-1797).
Bibliographie
- La Famille vertueuse (Paris, 1767, 4 vol. in-12).
- Lucile, ou le Progrès de la vertu (1768, in-18).
- Le Pied de Fanchette (1769, 3 vol. in-12).
- La Fille naturelle (1769, 2 vol. in-12).
- Le Pornographe (Londres, 1769, in-8°).Template:Commentaire biblio
- Le Mimographe (Amsterdam, 1770, in 8°). Template:Commentaire biblio
- Les Idées singulières, 1770.
- Le Marquis de T… (Londres, 1771, 4 vol. in-12).
- Adèle (1772, 5 vol. in-12).
- La Femme dans les trois états de fille, d’épouse et de mère (Londres, 1773, 3 vol. in-12).
- Le Ménage parisien (Paris, 1773, 2 vol. in-12).
- Les Nouveaux Mémoires d’un homme de qualité (1774, 2 vol. in-12).
- Le Paysan perverti, ou Les dangers de la ville, 1775, 1776, 4 vol. in-12.
- L’École des pères (1776, 3 vol. in-8°).
- Les Gynographes, ou Idées de deux honnêtes femmes sur un projet de règlement pour mettre les femmes à leur place (1777, in-8°).
- Le Quadragénaire (1777, 2 vol. in-12).
- Le Nouvel Abélard, ou Lettres de deux amants qui ne se sont jamais vus (1778, 4 vol. in-12).
- La Vie de mon père (1779, 2 vol. in-12).
- La Malédiction paternelle (1780, 3 vol. in-12).
- Les Contemporaines, ou Aventures des plus jolies femmes de l’Âge présent (1780-85, 42 vol. in-12).
- La Découverte australe par un homme volant ou Le Dédale français (1781)
- L’Andrographe, ou Idées pour opérer une réforme générale des mœurs (1782, in-8°).
- La Dernière aventure d’un homme de quarante-cinq ans (1783, in-12).
- La Prévention nationale, action adaptée à la scène (1784, 3 vol. in-12).
- La Paysanne pervertie (1784, 4 vol. in-12).
- Les Veillées du Marais, ou Histoire du prince Oribeau et de la princesse Oribelle (1785, 2 vol. in-12), réimpr. sous le titre de l’Instituteur d’un prince royal (1791, 4 vol. in-12).
- Les Françaises (1786, 4 vol. in-12).
- Les Parisiennes (1787, 4 vol. in-12).
- Les Nuits de Paris ou le Spectateur nocturne (1788-1794, 8 vol. in-12).
- La Femme infidèle (1788, 4 vol. in-12).
- Ingénue Saxancour, ou la Femme séparée (1789, 3 vol. in-12).
- Le Thesmographe, ou Idées pour opérer une reforme générale des lois (1789, in-8°).
- Monument du costume physique et moral, de la fin du Template:S- (Neuwied, 1789, in-fol.).
- Le Palais-Royal (Paris, 1790, 3 vol. in-12).
- L’Année des dames nationales, ou Histoire jour par jour d’une femme de France (1791-94, 12 vol. in-12).
- Le Drame de la vie, contenant un homme tout entier, pièce en treize actes d’ombres et en dix pièces régulières (1793, 5 vol. in-12).
- Monsieur Nicolas, ou le Cœur humain dévoilé (1794-97, 16 vol. in-12).
- La Philosophie de de Nicolas (1796, 3 vol., in-12).
- L’Anti-Justine ou les délices de l’amour, 1798, œuvre érotique saisie par la police en 1802.
Restif a encore publié, sous le titre de Théâtre (1793, 5 vol. in-12), une série de pièces qui n’ont pas été représentées.
References
- Bad Books: Rétif de la Bretonne, Sexuality, and Pornography (2013) by Amy S. Wyngaard
- Mark Poster: "The Utopian Thought of Restif de la Bretonne" (1971).
- Bibliographie et Iconographie de tous les ouvrages de Restif de la Bretonne by Paul Lacroix
- Rétif de la Bretonne. Sa vie et ses amours ; documents inédits ; ses descendants ; catalogue complet de ses ouvrages (1854) is a biography of Restif de la Bretonne by Charles Monselet.
See also
